Daily American Organ

Basis Principles of the American Party of

Virginia.

Determined to preserve our political institutions

in their original purity and vigor, and to keep them

unadulterated and unimpaired by foreign influence,

either civil or religious, as well as by home faction

and home demagoguism; and believing that an

American policy, religious, political, and commer-

cial, necessary for the attainment of these ends, we

shall observe and carry out in practice, the follow-

ing principles:

1. That the suffrages of the American people

for political offices, should not be given to any

other than those born on our soil, and reared and

matured under the influence of our institutions.

2. That no foreigner ought to be allowed to ex-

ercise the elective franchise, till he shall have re-

sided within the United States a sufficient length

of time to enable him to become acquainted with

the principles and imbued with the spirit of our

institutions, and until he shall have become tho-

roughly identified with the great interests of our

country

3. That whilst no obstacle should be interposed

to the immigration of all foreigners of honest and

industrious habits, and all privileges and immu-

ni-ties enjoyed by any native-born citizens of our

country should be extended to all such immigrants.

except that of participating in any of our political

administrations; yet all legal means should be

adopted to obstruct and prevent the immigration

of the vicious and worthless, the criminal and

pauper.

4. That the American doctrine of religious tol-

eration, and entire absence of all proscription for

opinion's sake, should be cherished as one of the

very fundamental principles of our civil freedom,

and that any sect or party which believes and main-

tains that any foreign power, religious or political,

has the right to control the conscience or direct

the conduct of a freeman, occupies a position which

is totally at war with the principles of freedom of

opinion, and which is mischievous in its tendency,

and which principle, if carried into practice, would

prove wholly destructive of our religious and civil

liberty.

5. That the Bible in the hands of every free cit-

izen is the only permanent basis of all true liberty

and genuine equality

6. That the intelligence of the people is neces-

sary to the right use and the continuance of our

liberties, civil and religious; hence the propriety

and importance of the promotion and fostering of

all means of moral and intellectual culture by some

adequate and permanent provision for general ed-

ucation.

7. That the doctrine of availability, now so prev-

alent and controlling, in the nomination of candi-

dates for office, in total disregard to all principles

of right, of truth, and of justice, is essentially

wrong, and should be by all good men condemned.

8. That, as a general rule, the same restrictions

should be prescribed to the exercise of the power

of removal from office, as are made necessary to be

observed in the power of appointment thereto;

and that executive influence and patronage should

be scrupulously conferred and jealously guarded.

9. That the sovereignty of the States should be

supreme in the exercise of all powers not express-

ly delegated to the federal government, and which

may not be necessary and proper to carry out the

powers so delegated, and that this principle should

be observed and held sacred in all organizations of

the American party.

10. That all sectarian intermeddling with politics

or political institutions, coming from whatever

source it may, should be promptly resisted by all

such means as seem to be necessary and proper for

this end.

11. That whilst the perpetuity of the present

form of the federal government of the United

States is actually necessary for the proper develop-

ment of all the resources of this country, yet the

principle of non-intervention, both on the part of

the federal government and of the several States

of the Union, in the municipal affairs of each other.

is essential to peace and prosperity of our country,

and to the well-being and permanence of our insti-

tutions, and at the same time the only reliable

bond of brotherhood and union.

12. The red republicanism and licentious indul-

gence in the enjoyment of civil privileges, are as

much to be feared and deprecated by all friends

to well-regulated government and true liberty, as

any of the forms of monarchy and despotism

13. That the true interests and welfare of this

country, the honor of this nation. the individual

and private rights of its citizens, conspire to de-

mand that all other questions arising from party

organizations, or from any other source, should be

held subordinate to and in practice made to yield

to the great principles herein promulgated.